38% Off Discounts: Special Prices for Animal-Speak: The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great & Small Review

Are you looking to buy Animal-Speak: The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great & Small? here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Animal-Speak: The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great & Small. check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Lowest Price Offers

Animal-Speak: The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great & Small Review

Animal Speak by Ted Andrews
Spirit Guides and Totems
I discovered this book on a trip through the White Mountains of Arizona, where I was born. After reading the book I have purchased several more copies as gifts and had them sent direct from Amazon. For anyone interested in Native American culture, shamanism, connecting with and understanding the creatures that share the Earth with us, this is a "must have" book. Animals speak about the events and emotions in our lives. For a writer the book brings a wealth of background character information.
Have you ever dreamt about an animal, a panther, a snake, a bear or a hawk? Did you wonder why the dream seemed important. Have you ever glanced out the door or window to see a spider casually weaving an intricate web or a raccoon or dog glancing back at you? What does a totem mean and do the inhabitants of this modern civilization have personal totems? Do you have pictures of a particular animal scattered throughout your house? I have many pictures of panthers and jaguars in the rooms in which I spend my time because I feel connected to the jaguar of South American history, especially the Mayans. Why?
My answers were in this book, but even without questions I have found Animal Speak is loaded with wonderful information about so many different creatures. Plus, it is a delight to discover what the underlying emotions may be when someone tells you that they like (or hate) dolphins, woodpeckers, ants, bees or perhaps a coyote which is actually linked to the dog.
For the mystic the answer is yes we have totems. The animals (perhaps pets) in a totem can change as they bring messages that are to warn, protect, comfort, guide, remind or whatever is needed.

Animal-Speak: The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great & Small Overview

Want to learn more information about Animal-Speak: The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great & Small?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

15% Off Discounts: Buy Cheap Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache Review

Are you looking to buy Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache? here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache. check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache Review

What do people make of places? This is the central question examined by Keith Basso in his ethno-linguistic study of the relationship between language and landscape among the Apaches of Cibecue, on the Fort Apache Reservation in central Arizona. Basso, a professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico, has spent over 30 years conducting field work among the Western Apaches. His publications concerning this group include articles on language, patterns of silence in social interaction, witchcraft beliefs, and ceremonial symbolism, among others. The idea for Wisdom Sits in Places stemmed from a study conducted between 1979 and 1984, in which Basso, with the help of a grant from the National Science Foundation and the guidance of the Apaches, conducted a study of Apache places and place-names; how the Apache refer to their land, the stories behind the place-names, and how these place-names are used in daily conversation by Apache men and women. The result is a stunningly informative account of the use of landscape and language in the social interactions of the Western Apaches.
Basso divides his book into four sections: Quoting the Ancestors, Stalking with Stories, Speaking with Names, and Wisdom Sits in Places. Each chapter's focus is to examine how landscape and language serve distinct purposes in Western Apache society. Basso incorporates the oral history of, and discussions with, local Apaches, as well as his formal training as an ethnographer-linguist, to explain the underlying themes of this book.
First, Basso introduces the reader to the idea of place-names and in the Western Apache construction of history. As conceived by the Apaches, the past is a "well-worn `path' or `trail' which was traveled first by the people's founding ancestors and which subsequent generations of Apaches have traveled ever since" (31). The ancestors gave names to places, based on events that occurred there. Regardless of the physical changes in the landscape that occurred over time, the story of what took place, as well as the place-name, was passed down through generations and serves as a connection between the people and their ancestors.
Second, Basso examines how the language and the land are "manipulated by Apaches to promote compliance with standards for acceptable social behavior and the moral values which support them" (41). The historical tales of place-names are without exception morality tales, intended to influence patterns of social action. Their purpose is to serve as warnings, criticisms, and enlightenment for those who are behaving improperly; not in accordance with the Apache way of life. The telling of a historical tale is "intended as a critical and remedial response" to an individual's having committed one or more social offenses. Apaches contend that if the message is taken to heart, a lasting bond will have been created between that individual and the site at which the events in the tale took place. In short, the land, accompanied with its historical tale, "makes the people live right" (61).
Third, through the act of "speaking with names", place-names can be condensed "into compact form their essential moral truths" (101). "Speaking with names" is considered appropriate only under certain circumstances, generally to enable those who engage in it "to acknowledge a regrettable circumstance without explicitly judging it, to exhibit solicitude without openly proclaiming it, and to offer advice without appearing to do so" (91). Evoking images of a particular place and narrative thus replaces a more direct form of advice or criticism, with "a minimum of linguistic means" (103).
Finally, with the guidance of his Apache friend, Dudley Patterson, Basso examines the path of wisdom in Western Apache society. Patterson explains there are two mental conditions, "steadiness of mind", and "resilience of mind", which lead to a third and most desirable condition, smoothness of mind. These three conditions are not innate; therefore, one must work on one's mind in order to gain wisdom. To work on one's mind, "one must observe different places, learn their Apache place-names, and reflect on traditional narratives that underscore the virtues of wisdom" (134). A resilient mind, according to Patterson, does not "give in to panic or fall prey to spasms of anxiety or succumb to spells of crippling worry" (132). A steady mind is "unhampered by feelings of arrogance or pride, anger or vindictiveness, jealously or lust" (133). Steadiness and resilience give way to a sense of "cleared space" or "area free of obstruction", conditions necessary for smoothness of mind. Only those who continue on the trail of wisdom their whole lives come closest to having a smooth mind, and are "able to foresee disaster, fend off misfortune, and avoid explosive conflicts with other persons" (131). Thus, wisdom is intertwined with the idea of survival through the consistent and thoughtful evocation of landscape and language.
Keith Basso and the Western Apaches of Cibecue have provided readers with an insightful and provocative account of the connection between language, land, and a people's cultural history. Wisdom Sits in Places opens the door for future research on place-names by shedding light on a previously overshadowed topic in anthropological studies. Basso's dissection of certain stories and social interactions can be overwhelming and a bit dry, but his purpose is made clear when his examinations are added together with the Apache narratives. What results is a clear picture of what language and landscape mean to the Western Apaches, the functional versatility of place-names, and the importance of being aware of one's sense of place.

Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache Overview

Want to learn more information about Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Best Buy for 1491 (Second Edition): New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus Review

Are you looking to buy 1491 (Second Edition): New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus? here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on 1491 (Second Edition): New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Cheapest Deals

1491 (Second Edition): New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus Review

Although recent years have yielded significant progress in understanding how "Indians" lived throughout the Americas before 1492 and Columbus, only isolated bits of the story have reached the popular press. Far too many people still hold to one of two myths of the Indians, or have little conception at all of pre-Columbian America.
The first popular myth is that the Indians were a bunch of primitive savages just keeping the land warm until superior Europeans showed up. It's sad to read reviews here that assert that because Indians used stone tools they were therefore "stone age", with the implication that their culture was no further advanced than that early period.
The second myth makes the Indians into proto-flower-children, naively and simply in tune with their environment.
Both myths are based on stereotyping and are condescending to the pre-Colombians. How could people spread over two continents and many millennia be briefly summarized? They can't be! The Americas saw the development of a broad range of cultures, just like every other inhabited area of the world. Some cultures overstressed their environment and soon collapsed. Others created stable conditions under which they could survive for generations. (Which is not the same as saying they didn't impact nature.) But even the latter could be brought down by climate change, political instability, disease (especially European), or contact with outsiders (Indian or European).
Great cities arose in mesoamerica and the Andes, and also in other areas when the right conditions prevailed. And sophisticated cultures existed even where city building wasn't favored.
This book takes the reader through a vibrant overview of centuries of Indian culture both before and shortly after Columbus landed. Much of the narrative is based on work-in-progress by archaeologists and historians, and will certainly become dated with time, but it is an important update to the common, current understanding of the subject.
For those not enthralled by one of the myths I mention above, most Americans recall our history along the lines of Scene 1: The Pilgrims land and encounter Indians who teach them how to grow corn; they then have a big Thanksgiving party together. Scene 2: Americans moving inland encounter savage Indians who need to be exterminated or moved to reservations to make the continent safe for manifest destiny. Scene 3: The few remaining Indians are victims of brutal European suppression, and we need to buy jewelry and pottery from them to make ourselves feel better about the situation.
This book is a welcome update to our thinking about the Americas before Columbus. It's also one of the best books I've read in long time, and I highly recommend it.

1491 (Second Edition): New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus Overview

Want to learn more information about 1491 (Second Edition): New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

45% Off Discounts: Special Prices for The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven Review

Are you looking to buy The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven? here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Great Deals

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven Review

I should preface this book with a personal explanation. The best way to approach Sherman Alexie is to look into your own personal history regarding American Indians. For me, I grew up with the vague notion that Indians didn't exist anymore. I think a lot of kids that don't live near large Native American populations suffer from this perception. I mean, where in popular culture do you ever come across a modern day Indian? There was that movie "Smoke Signals" (based on one of the stories in this book) and possibly the television show "Northern Exposure" but that is it, ladies and gentlemen. In my own life, realization hit when I started Junior High and read "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" for the very first time. If you've read the book then you know that it dwells on the character "Chief" and his past. I read about him and found out that I knew diddly over squat about Native Americans. They show "Dances With Wolves" in high school homeroom and through that you're supposed to infer contemporary Indian culture? That's like watching "Gone With the Wind" and wondering where all the happy slaves are today. It doesn't make sense. This is why I'm nominating, "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven" as the book that should be required in every Junior High and High School in the country immediately. We've all read our "Catcher In the Rye" and "Scarlet Letter". Now let's read something real.
The book is a collection of short stories, all containing repeating characters and events. There is no single plot to the story and while the character of Victor is probably the closest thing the book has to a protagonist, he hardly hogs the spotlight for very long. In this book we witness a single Spokane Reservation. We watch personal triumphs and repeated failures and mistakes. Author Alexie draws on history, tradition, and contemporary realism to convey the current state of the American Indian. You'll learn more than you thought to.
My favorite chapter in this book, bar none, is "A Good Story". In it, a character's mother mentions that her son's stories are always kind of depressing. By this point the reader is more than halfway through the book and has probably thought the same thing (deny it though they might). In response, Junior tells a story that isn't depressing. Just thoughtful and interesting. It's as if Alexie himself has conceded briefly that, no, the stories in this book aren't of the cheery happy-go-lucky nature the reader might be looking for. That's probably because the stories are desperately real and fantastical all at once. To be honest, I feel a bit inadequate reviewing this book. It's obvious that Alexie is probably the greatest writer of his generation. Hence, these stories are infinitely readable and distressing.
This is a good book. This is the book to read when you ask yourself, "What author haven't I ever read before?". This is the book you will find yourself poring over on subways, buses, and taxi cabs. You'll leave it on park benches and run twenty blocks north to retrieve it again. I don't know how many other ways I can say that it's a good book. Well worth reading. Funny and taxing all at once. Sherman Alexie deserves greater praise than any I can give him. All I can say then is that this book is beautiful. Read this book.

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven Overview

Want to learn more information about The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Purchase Cheap Island of the Blue Dolphins Review

Are you looking to buy Island of the Blue Dolphins? here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Island of the Blue Dolphins. check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Island of the Blue Dolphins Review

As a child, my grade school librarian wore out from me asking to borrow so often. Later, as a private tutor, my students chose this again and again. "Island of the Blue Dolphins" lives up to its reputation as one of the greatest children's book ever.
Libraries are good for borrowing books, but some books should be on the shelf of any young reader. Scott O'Dell's magnificent "Island of the Blue Dolphins" is just that. Save your librarian some grief and buy a copy.
"The Island of the Blue Dolphins" is not the story of a foolish young girl who missed the boat when the island was being evacuated. Far from it. Karana was on the boat. Her playful little brother, Ramo, wasn't. He was only 6 years old and could never survive alone. She jumped off and headed to shore to save him. The boat left.
Every little girl or boy has been alone, frightened without a clear way of finding his or her way home. Often, the problem is fixed by turning the next corner, finding out it is the same neighborhood it has always been. In the case of "The Island of the Blue Dolphins," Karana's home never changes. Everyone she knows and loves, however, leaves.
For 18 years Karana took care of herself, and she grows from a preteen child into a woman just entering her 30s. This is that story, filled with adventures similar to "Robinson Crusoe," another true story set to fiction. Fans of "Swiss Family Robinson," will likewise enjoy this.
Karana's ingenuity to survive is surpassed by her tenacity and hope. Weathering hard circumstances, such wild dogs, storms and the constant need to find fresh food and good water. She uses what she learned from her parents and other villagers before the left, and what she learns by trial an error.
As exciting as "Treasure Island," only with a female protagonist, the book is more than a tale of heroics. Scott O'Dell's keen sense of description separates this from the rest of the bookshelf. Although sensitive that his reader is younger, he still manages to place to reader in the story, imagining the smell of sea or hearing the not-so-far off bark of wild dogs.
Like other classics as "Old Yeller" and "My Brother Sam Is Dead," not everything comes easily to Karana. There are somber times when people leave, when her brother dies, or when things look bleak. O'Dell tells the story as realistically as he can, which makes the happy times happier.
I fully recommend "Island of the Blue Dolphins," by Scott O'Dell. It won "The Newberry Medal for Best Children's Book" for good reason.
Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

Island of the Blue Dolphins Overview

Want to learn more information about Island of the Blue Dolphins?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

36% Off Discounts: Best Price The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Review

Are you looking to buy The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian? here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Great Deals

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Review

"Do you know the worst thing about being poor?" asks Junior Spirit at the beginning of "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian." It's not hunger, he insists. "Sure, sometimes my family misses a meal, and sleep is the only thing we have for dinner, but I know that, sooner or later, my parents will come busting through the door with a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken."
Then Junior tells us the worst thing about being poor, and it will break your heart.
"Diary" is a novel for young adults by Sherman Alexie. It tells the story of a 14-year-old Indian who goes off the rez to attend Reardan, an all-white school. A more pedestrian writer would have his protagonist leave the reservation entirely, but Junior continues to live there with his parents, and he comes to fear that he no longer belongs in either world.
Junior aspires to be a cartoonist, and he fills this "diary" with mordant, self-deprecating drawings. The work of Ellen Forney, they are funny and touching, and help to make the narrative credible as the work of a talented 14-year-old.
Junior's best friend is Rowdy, a sometimes violent young man who may suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome. It is Rowdy who feels most betrayed by Junior's move to Reardan, and the deep rift in their relationship colors the rest of the story.
Many juvenile novels center on youthful rebellion, but while Junior's parents are deeply flawed, he understands that most of their problems stem from the crushing poverty they have endured on the reservation. The story of his sister, whom the family calls Mary Runs Away, is particularly poignant, and provides a counterpoint to her brother's success.
While most of the characters are vividly drawn, I find Junior's geeky friend Gordy a bit wooden. "Don't you hate PCs?" Gordy says. "They are sickly and fragile and vulnerable to viruses. PCs are like French people living during the bubonic plague." Even geeks don't talk that way.
Junior unexpectedly becomes a basketball star, but his spectacular performance in the "big game" comes at the expense of Rowdy and the reservation team, making him feel more traitor than hero. His struggle to resolve this conflict provides the central thrust of the story. The final scene, a twilight game of one-on-one, is only two paragraphs long, but its impact is stunning.
While billed as a "novel for young adults," "Diary" will richly reward the attention of any adult. Read it now, before Hollywood turns it into an innocuous, feel-good movie with a title like "The Little Injun that Could."

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Overview

Want to learn more information about The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...